Changed forever: Friends reflect on the impact of a woman's death through intimate partner homicide

Australian women killed by their partners have often been understood to come from backgrounds of poverty and marginalization. However, it has become clear that a number of more affluent women also fall victim to intimate partner homicide. Notwithstanding their socio-economic status, it seems that women victims of lethal violence lack the power to protest. This paper describes qualitative case study research with middle-class women friends1 of a victim of intimate partner homicide. These women are determined to 'give voice' to their friend; they explore how they relate differently now to issues of gender, power and violence within the family and in the community.